


|| Not Meant For The Sea ||

by deliciouslycrzy



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/M, Gen, Speculation, Spoilers, based on information from the leaks, this is basically me fangirling all over the idea of Su Jin having been a pirate at some point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 22:44:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1795954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliciouslycrzy/pseuds/deliciouslycrzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of her still yearned for the open sea.</p><p>Which was strange, she thought, for a woman who had chosen to make her home somewhere landlocked in the middle of the mountains, but then again... Her life had always been full of strange choices. A pirate choosing land over sea was hardly the strangest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	|| Not Meant For The Sea ||

**Author's Note:**

> So, this story was inspired by the character of Su Jin Beifong, a character who we've only seen in the Book 3 leaked episodes- because of this, this story is considered one whole giant spoiler and speculation, so if that sort of thing doesn't appeal to you, I suggest you click away. If it does, however-
> 
> I hope you enjoy my take on Lin's sister, and a moment that probably takes place sometime after episode 6. 
> 
> I own nothing, and am simply borrowing all these fantastic characters from Bryke.

Part of her still yearned for the open sea.

Which was strange, she thought, for a woman who had chosen to make her home somewhere landlocked in the middle of the mountains, but then again... Her life had always been full of strange choices. A pirate choosing land over sea was hardly the strangest.

 Suyin smiled wistfully, trailing long fingers over the hilt of the dagger she usually left mounted in the otherwise empty display box on one of her bookshelves. She had pulled it down today on a whim, with the realization of how long it had actually been since the last time she had actually sat down and paid any care to it. It wasn't something she often thought of, needing, the relic from her days spent scrubbing the decks and nights stealing through tiny villages that could barely sustain themselves, let alone the pirates that leeched from them.

 That was the one thing she regretted from her days as a pirate- the people that she had hurt along the way. She had been a whirlwind of destruction as a child, and though she had done her best to make up for the havoc that she had caused, not everything could be made right. That was one of those hard lessons that she had never leaned under her mother's roof.

  _Consequences._

She had leather polish and a sharpening stone laid out on the couch next to her as she turned the dagger over in her hands, running a cloth over the smooth metal to catch any dust that had accumulated over the years. It was simply, mindless work, and Su let her thoughts wander as she polished.

 When she had been young and had needed a sharp, deadly weapon on her person at all times, remembering the maintenance had come easily to the metalbender. Sitting around a fire on a beach or sandwiched between Gashin and Aiwei on the deck of ' _Old Glory_ ' with a little oil lamp lit in front of them so they didn't cut themselves, easy chatter and the sound of birds chirping or fish jumping out of the water cutting into the noisy sliding of blade against flint, but as she'd grown, and exchanged pirate boots for dance flats and retired her blade to it's place on the shelf, the edge had grown dull and the metal dingy.

 It wasn't something that couldn't be done with metalbending- there was always the chance that you would upset the balance of the metals and the structure that had been created when it had been crafted, and you could never get it as sharp as you could by hand, anyway. It took time, time that she hadn't had to spare over the years between running the city and running a family.

Aiwei would likely chide her for it if he ever caught wind of the fact that she'd let it get so bad- she knew for a fact that the handsomely curved sword kept as 'decoration' in the bespectacled man's quarters was always kept deadly sharp, just in case he would ever need it.

Old habits died hard, but that had never been one of hers, unfortunately.

The leather hilt of the knife still smelled of sweat and salt and the ocean, and it was worn and soft from the many times she'd fallen asleep with it clutched in her palm. It wasn't the only souvenir she had left of that particular time in her life, but it was one of only two that she kept displayed in her office. The other was an unassuming picture of the ship that she had helped crew, buried alongside other pictures and items she'd collected from her travels.

There had always been something reassuring about the scent of salt-water in the air and the consistent swaying of the deck beneath her feet when she rose in the morning and retired in the evening, and it was something that she continued to miss even as the years between then and now stretched further and further apart.

The salty sea air wasn't something that even her husband could bring her here, but she had found a way to satisfy her need for the second, at least, somewhat.

Some nights her body still ached from the softness of her mattress and mornings would find her curled up in the hammock she kept slung in one of the guest bedrooms on the far end of the house, hand on her waist as if she still wore her old worn leather belt, coin purse between her and the woven reeds and dagger in plain sight.

The room was small- the smallest bedroom in the whole house, the one misstep in her husband otherwise flawless design. It had a singular, tiny window and was barely big enough for a desk and a small bookshelf and a bed with her hammock strung over it because it was the only space available.

 It was Su's favorite room in the whole house, and she had it covered with the rest of her keepsakes and random detritus that she'd saved from when the only space she'd had to herself was a half a room this size. The old flag that she'd salvaged when the ship had wrecked, a piece of driftwood with all of their initials carved into it that Gashin had saved and brought to her years later. Their former captain's ragged hat with a peacock feather still primly sticking out of the brim was hung one one of the bed posts alongside an old, battered gold necklace.

 She could pretend it was her cabin on the 'Old Glory' again, and once she closed her eyes and letting the rocking of the hammock send her off, she would sleep deeply and without the aches and pains and regrets that had followed her into middle-age like a hunter followed it's prey. She had woken there more than once with a child or two wrapped around her and Baatar on a mat on the floor, soft, delicate fingers twined with hers, and she'd smile at the reminder of why she had given up the sea in the first place.

As the years had moved on and her children grew older, becoming _teenagers_ (when had she said that was okay, anyway?), the mornings that she'd woken up with one or more of them curled against her back or chest or sprawled on top of her had trickled to none. Bataar joining her was still a constant, though the mat had become a cot which had become the bed and the mattress that currently occupied the space beneath the hammock, and sometimes Su would fall off the hammock and land on the mattress snuggled between his comforting, lanky frame and the wall, squeezed in because the bed was made with only one person in mind, but-

 They were far too stubborn to try and find another solution, or to sleep apart. It had been far too many years than Suyin could count since she'd spent the entire night sleeping alone, and she wasn't sure if she could handle the silence anymore even if she tried. There was just something comforting about the weight of another person by your side, their heartbeat steady in sleep alongside yours, even if their bed was across the room or below yours.

 Su let out a quiet hum as she began running the blade of her dagger over the whetstone rhythmically; her husband was spending the night in the city because of the latest renovation project, and the steady warmth of Bran, the family pet otterhound hadn't been enough to let her settle into anything but a light doze when she'd tried to fall asleep earlier.

And the hammock had already been occupied that night, so she'd had to find some other way to settle her thoughts.

She wasn't the only former pirate living in her home, and she knew that both Aiwei and Gashin needed that tight, enclosed space just like she did. Before she had set it up, Aiwei had admitted to stringing a hammock in his closet, and she'd found Gashin asleep out near the waterfall on far more than just one occasion.

Some nights she would find Aiwei in the small room when she opened the door, one hand clutching his glasses to his chest and long legs slung over the side of the hammock. Dressed only in his underthings, cheek pressed against the woven reeds and drool dripping out of the side of his mouth, in the dark Su could almost pretend for a moment that no time had passed at all between now and a time when she'd have had a hammock strung up beside his.

But then the moonlight would shine through the window, highlighting the gold plate on his glasses and the white in his hair and the wrinkles on her own hands, and Su would sigh and close the door behind her, leaving him to his gentle snoring and the rocking comfort of the hammock.

Tonight had been one of those nights, which was what had brought her to her office in the first place- if she couldn't find peace in rest or in her hammock, then she might as well get some work done. Or pretend to try and get some work done, as the case may be.

With the arrival of the Avatar – _and Lin-_ Su had the feeling this would only be the first of many sleepless nights to come.

_This is the safest city in the world._

As much as Su found herself saying it lately- doubt was beginning to creep into her mind. She had created this home, this city, as her own haven, and as a place for anyone and everyone who wanted a second chance. Her own place to build a family and keep it safe- you couldn't keep a family safe on the road or on the sea or in the desert.

She had tried.

But could you keep anyone safe in such uncertain times as these? The world had been thrown for a loop after The Harmonic Convergence, what with the unleashing of spirits into the world and the sudden resurfacing of airbending – _oh, she and her husband had been utterly speechless when Opal had sneezed and sent her entire dinner flying into the air-_ there was a sudden uneasiness. Would humans and spirits be able to live amongst one another peacefully? Would all of the new airbenders be able to simply up and leave their families, their _countries,_ without causing an uproar?

Could she really let her daughter leave her when everything was still so uncertain? Lin and Korra could keep her safe for as long as they traveled with her, but what if that wasn't enough? What if-

“You're going to cut yourself if you keep at it with your hands shaking like that.”

Suyin glanced down to her hands to see that they were in fact shaking- not nearly enough for just anyone to notice, but-

“ I thought you were asleep.” She said dryly, setting the knife in her hands carefully back down onto the couch cushion beside her and laying the flint and polish rag alongside it. Her eyes flashed up towards the doorway to meet steady, calm green staring back at her. The drool was gone from his chin and his glasses were once again perched on the bridge of his nose, and a pale green night-robe had been pulled over his somewhat slumped shoulders. To anyone else, Aiwei would have appeared simply a striking, strong figure, but she could see the slight haze in his eyes as he stood in front of her, and she wondered what it had been that had truly woken him.

“ I was.” His tone was amused, and she could see the slight upcurl of his bottom lip as took a step into her office and slowly shut the door behind him. “A certain heartbeat woke me. And the abuse of that poor dagger.”

“...” She shifted back against the couch with a slight smile on her own lips to hide the worry in her eyes. She ignored the part about her heartbeat- she wasn't sure she wanted to hear what exactly he had to say about why she was worrying just yet. Especially if he told her that he was feeling the same anxiousness that she was. Her own worries she could pass off as simple paranoia, but her old friend's gut feelings had always proven right in the end, and just for a moment she'd like to believe that they truly were in the safest city in the world.

So instead Su laughed, and then gestured towards the flint and dagger with a broad gesture.

“Oh? Well, if you think you can do a better job-” Aiwei's eyes met hers from behind the frames of his glasses with an annoyed, steely glint to them, and she knew she was about to get a lecture. And oh- it was so much better than a prediction.

Some days Suyin still yearned for the open sea- some days she thought that maybe her family would be safer on a ship in the middle of the ocean instead of in the middle of the mountains. But earthbenders weren't meant for the sea, and no matter what was to happen in the days to come...

They would stand their ground.


End file.
